2 Thessalonians 1:5–12

Good morning. I'm glad to see you, everybody. I'm glad you're here. Welcome to Calvary Chapel. Goodness. Welcome, everybody, watching online. I invite you to stand with us. We'll pray, and we'll get started.

Lord, we just thank you. We thank you for another day, for another opportunity to be here, Lord, to spend some time in your word, and to lift a joyful noise to you. Lord, we pray that you'd help us to sit everything else aside, leave it at the door, and just to simply focus on you. The lavish praise upon you, Lord, all glory and honor that's due to you.

Help us to focus on your word this morning. Give us hearts to receive and ears to hear that which you've prepared for us. Ask your blessing upon this time and the kids at the other end of the hall and all the Sunday school teachers and nursery workers and people that are making everything happen this morning, Lord. Ask your blessing upon them as well. We love you and we praise you.

In Jesus' name, amen.

I pray this, Pastor Ryan, give us ears to hear.

You guys can go and have some greeting time, fellowship time.

Good morning.

If you could begin to find your seat, grab a bulletin. We'll get ready to go over some announcements.

Welcome to Calvary Chapel. I'm glad that you are here. This morning, some things to take note of in your bulletin. First of all, most of the studies that go on throughout the week are canceled for this week. Monday, men's and women's study is canceled. Wednesday evening, both youth group and church is canceled. And then, of course, everything going on on Thursday.

Enjoy some Thanksgiving time with your families. Over in the middle section, some things to remind you of. We do have a community night of worship tonight at the Burford at 630. Come in. Come join us for that. Also, there is a ministerial alliance-hosted Thanksgiving service Tuesday, November 26th. That's at 630 at Central Christian Church. And then also, there are about 10 spots still available.

Is it still 10? 10 spots still available to go to Dallas with the Operation Christmas Child group. If you're interested, we do need to know by the end of the day today. So if you're interested in that, you can see Ross and Jana after church, and they can get you connected. Also, just so you know, we're going to be doing a lot of church-related stuff. We're going to be doing a lot of church-related stuff.

We're going to be doing a lot of church-related stuff. Just so you know, this year, you know, we had our box collection last week, and this year we collected 325 boxes. So that was pretty cool. We far surpassed last year. Last year we had 245. So, yeah, good job, guys. That's pretty awesome. So, okay, and a quick handful of things that are not in your bulletin.

Saturday, December the 7th, from 830 to 430, there's going to be a one-day women's conference. It's going to be a conference at Calvary of Wellington. The cost is free, and lunch is provided. And there's a poster hanging up out there with some details about that. Also, we still need some help with the live nativity. The last time that I looked, there were zero names on the live nativity sign-up sheet.

Listen, fellas, here's the deal. You may not be wise, but you can pretend to be that day. And so we need lots of people to help out with that. And so, otherwise, Joe's got to put a lot of costumes on, and he's going to be all by himself. That's not going to be fun. Well, it would be fun to watch, but no, it wouldn't be fun. So, please sign up for that. That's December 13th and 14th.

And then also, one last thing. If you have a kid in Sunday school, they are going to be coming home with a paper today with some different ideas on it. So what they've been doing the past few months is they have been collecting money, taking their little donations and putting it in a box, and they've got all kinds of money to be able to buy some things for people in other countries. Things like a goat, or a chicken, or things like that.

And so they've raised like almost, well, am I allowed to say that? I don't know. They've raised a bunch of money to do this, and so they've got to decide how they're going to do that. So you guys are going to be praying about it with your kids this week, and they're going to be making a decision about that. So pretty cool to see how the kids have kind of taken hold of this and run with it.

So, all right, those are the things that are going on. If you would, make sure that your mobile device is silenced. And for our responsive reading, we are going to be in Psalm 24. Psalm 24. Looking at the New American Standard for this part so that we sound the same. If you need a copy, it should be one in a row around you. And as you are turning to Psalm 24, if you are able,

please stand in the honor of the reading of God's Word.

I will read the odd verses if you will follow along with Pastor Allen and the even verses. Psalm 24, a psalm of David. The earth is the Lord's and all it contains, the world and those who dwell in it. For he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers. Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord and who may stand in his holy place. He who has clean hands and a pure heart,

who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood and is not sworn deceitfully. He shall receive a blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is the generation of those who seek him, who, who seek your face, even Jacob, Selah. Lift up your heads, O you gates, and be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the king of glory may come in. Who is the king of glory?

The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O gates, and lift them up, O ancient doors, that the king of glory may come in. Who is this king of glory? The Lord of hosts. He is the king of glory. Selah. And Father, we do praise you as the king of glory. And I thank you that you allow us to dwell with you because of your grace.

And Father, we look forward to that day when you return. And so, moving our hearts and lives through your word today, may we be drawn near to you, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. And if you would, open up in your Bibles to the book of 2 Thessalonians chapter 1. 2 Thessalonians chapter 1.

A year or so had elapsed since Paul died. Since Paul had written the book of 1 Thessalonians. Since he'd written that letter to that church. In which he told them a little bit about the day of the Lord. And told them about the second coming of Christ. Well, in that time that had elapsed in Thessalonica, there were difficult times that had come upon that church.

They were facing great persecution. They were facing great affliction. And on top of that, a false teaching had circulated that they had missed the rapture and that they were living in the day of the Lord. That they were living in that time. That time of judgment. And it wasn't hard for them to believe that because of the difficulty that they were living in.

And so in response to that, Paul writes the letter of 2 Thessalonians. And he does three things in this letter. He's going to encourage them. He's going to instruct them. And he's going to exhort them. Well, last week we started into the first portion where he was encouraging them. He wanted to encourage them because of the hard times that they were going through.

And we said that within this chapter on encouragement, he was going to do three things. And the first that he did is he just really took time. To appreciate them. He said, I thank God for you because of your growing faith and because of your growing love for one another. There they were a church that was growing corporately as well as individually in both their walks with Jesus Christ and their love for each other.

He said, not only that, but I even boast about you to the other churches. I tell the other churches just how amazing you are because in the midst of persecution and affliction, your perseverance in your faith. Continue. Continues to grow. You are handling these difficulties of life in such a phenomenal way. And it's such a blessing. And I tell everybody that I know about it because I'm just so proud of the way that you are handling these things.

And so after he takes that time to appreciate them, the next thing he's going to do is he is going to do exactly what we said. He's going to encourage them. And so with that as a backdrop, we pick up in verse five and this is what it says. This is a plain indication of God's righteous judgment so that you will be considered worthy of the kingdom of God. For which indeed you are suffering for after all it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels and flaming fire dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen. Amen. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power when he comes to be glorified in his saints on that day and to be marveled at among all who have believed for our testimony to you was believed. And so as he encourages them, he really ultimately reminds them of two things. He reminds them that they have been counted worthy and he reminds them of God's righteousness.

And so we start with the first one again in verse five. He says this is a plain indication of God's righteous judgment. You should ask yourself the question. What is a plain indication of God's righteous judgment? Well, that verse takes us back to the one previous where it said you are with perseverance and faith handling the persecution and affliction that's coming to you in your life.

In other words, what he's saying is because you show perseverance and because your faith. Is growing in the midst of this persecution and affliction. It is a proof that God's judgment is righteous. It is a proof that God's judgment is righteous because what these Thessalonian people were doing is that in the midst of the difficulties that they were facing, they were handling them.

Well, they were handling them with a spirit of perseverance to be able to not only bear up under but to take difficult circumstances and use them for the furtherance of the gospel. And in the midst of this, in the midst of difficult circumstances like persecution and affliction, they continued to show faith. Faith that God had not changed. Faith that in the midst of the persecution and affliction that they were dealing with that God was an unchanging God.

That his character and his nature were the same and they were continuing to show through their faith that they knew that God would work all things together for good. To those who love God and are called according to his purpose. And because of this perseverance and because of this faith in the midst of persecution, in the midst of persecution and affliction, Paul says this is an indication of God's righteous judgment. In other words, I lean on the Amplified Bible for this.

It says this is a sign of his fair verdict. And what verdict does God rule? That they have been counted worthy of the kingdom of God. The idea of being counted worthy of the kingdom of God is not that because they had persevered in the midst of affliction, they have now earned the kingdom of God. That's actually not the way that this word is used. But because of their perseverance in the midst of affliction,

they have been reckoned worthy of the kingdom of God. In other words, it is a sign of who they already are. They are showing the fruit in the midst of the affliction. And because of that, they are worthy of the kingdom of God. They are showing that their lives are exactly what God said that they were and showing that they are worthy of God's kingdom in their lives.

And he says, That's what you are. What you're suffering for. That is the reason that you're suffering. I think there's two things I would like to point out to you about that statement. And the first thing that I would like to point out to you is that the sufferings of this life have a purpose. The sufferings of this life have a point. And it is for the purpose of the kingdom.

The difficulties that we go through in this life have a purpose. And that purpose is for the kingdom. Everything that we do now as born again believers in Jesus Christ, is for the purpose of the kingdom of God. You don't always realize this. We don't always pay attention to this. But on the day that you came to Jesus as your Lord and Savior, on the day that you accepted him as your Savior,

you became a part of a second kingdom. You see, all of us are members of the kingdom of Earth. We're all members of planet Earth. Therefore, we're members of the kingdom of Earth. And as believers, we should be really good members of the kingdom of planet Earth, right? But we also, the day that we became born again, became citizens of a whole other kingdom.

We became citizens of the kingdom of Heaven. And now, our lives are learning to be lived upside down as far as this world is concerned. Because now, everyday we're learning what it looks like to live as a citizen of the kingdom of Heaven. And our lives are not to build a kingdom on this Earth. Our lives are to build the kingdom of Heaven. And everything that we do is intended to build the kingdom of God.

And everything that we do is for that kingdom. And so when suffering comes into our lives, when afflictions come into our lives, When suffering comes into our lives, when persecution come into our lives we realize that it is for the purpose of the kingdom which is why we can deal with those things a little bit easier because we realize that there's an ultimate purpose in the difficulties that we're going through in our lives but not only do we have this understanding that our lives were made for the kingdom and we are now kingdom citizens and everything about our lives is to learn what it looks like to live according to that kingdom and to be a part of that kingdom but we are reminded that you and i have a hope that we

have been counted worthy of the kingdom it started the day that you were born again and it has been proven throughout your entire life as you handle the adversity that comes into your life in a godly way and here's the fascinating thing oftentimes in our lives when we're going through difficulty and we're persevering when we're having faith in the midst of hard times we don't always sell and worship the Storehouse and maybe this is a job for us sometimes the Amenal forecast of God is to fill the pockets within you of our life in a life of powder like Ah! W wages In the deprived state and the terrible And Here's the fascinating thing Uma is see it. Sometimes all we see is the hard time that's in front of us. Sometimes we see that

maybe I'm a little whinier than I should be. Maybe I'm struggling a little more than I would like to be. Maybe it's a little bit harder than I would like for it to be. And sometimes we can get discouraged because in our minds, all we can see is the persecution and all we can see is the affliction, which is why Paul reminds them, this means that you're worthy of the kingdom. Because

it may not look like in your eyes that you're handling it very well, but from everything that we can see, you're showing perseverance and faith and you are declaring to everyone that your life is worthy of the kingdom for which you have been called. And it's a beautiful thing. And I need you to understand that because life is full of hard things. Life is full of difficult moments, difficult circumstances, afflictions, persecutions that we go through. And sometimes we say, Lord, I don't know

how much longer I can handle this. And he says, hang on because you may not see it, but boy, you show your worth. Boy, you show how worthy you are of the kingdom. And so Paul reminds them, you have been counted worthy of the kingdom through these hardships that you're going through. But then the second thing that he reminds them of to encourage them is the righteous judgment of God. He goes on to say,

for after all, it's only just for God to repay with afflictions those who afflict you and to give relief to you who are afflicted. And to us as well, when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire. He says, God's righteous judgment is such that we are reminded that because God is just, he afflicts those who afflict you. In other words, God deals with the difficult people in your lives. Let's deal with the justice of God real quick. Throughout scripture, God indicates over

and over again, his justice. God is just. God is just. God is just. God is just. God is just. God is just. God is just. God is just. God is just. God is just. God is just. God is just. God is just. God is just. God is just. Because God does not hold people accountable for sins they have not committed, nor does he hold them accountable for knowledge that they do not have, but he does hold us accountable for the

sins that we do commit and the knowledge that we do have. And so God is always just in all of his dealings. And God is just to deal with sinners, just like he's just to deal with the saints. And we are reminded as believers in Jesus Christ, that God is just to afflict those who have afflicted you. Now for the Thessalonian people, that the people that were bringing persecution into their life, and don't misunderstand me,

what they were going through is a little bit different than sometimes what we go through, because they were dealing with the fact that oftentimes they were running for their lives because of their faith. And they found themselves saying, Lord, how long? How long am I going to have to live with this? How long am I going to have to keep running just because I'm a believer in Jesus Christ? He says, don't worry. God is just, and he will afflict them. Those who are persecuting,

he will afflict them in the way that they are afflicting you. Now you and I, most of us in this room, we're probably not dealing with persecution for our faith, maybe in small ways, but not in the way that the Thessalonian people are. But I bet you deal with people who absolutely treat you like garbage sometimes. I bet you deal with really difficult people in your life. Some people who

have misused you, some people who have abused you, some people who have talked down to you or talked down about you. You have dealt with those kinds of people in your life. And I bet you find yourself saying, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. And I bet you're saying, Lord, when are you gonna deal with them? Lord, when are you gonna

deal with that situation? Like, am I always gonna live in this? Am I always gonna live with this abuse that this person is giving to me? And the answer is no. You don't have to always live with it because God is going to deal with it. Sometimes God deals with it on this side of eternity, right? We all love to think about the movie. The movie where in the end, the bad guy

got what was coming to him. The good guy got what was coming to him. And everything worked out perfect. And then they all lived happily ever after, right? But we know that we don't live in movies. We live in reality. And in reality, sometimes we find ourselves saying, why is it that the bad guys always seem to prosper? You know, you're not the first person that said that.

David in the Psalms said the same thing. Why is it that when I look at the bad people in the world, they seem to prosper? Everything seems to be going good for them. It seems like they're always winning. And I'm always on the receiving end of the garbage that they're pouring into my life. Lord, how much longer until you're going to deal with that? Sometimes God will deal with it on this

side of eternity. I've seen that happen before. I had a supervisor that I worked for at one point in time. And he was a nice enough guy, but he did shady stuff, right? And you were always like, that seems shady what's going on right now. And I worked with this guy who was what I like to refer to as a social justice warrior. Like that was just his, he was always looking for justice

somewhere. And I was always like, dude, don't worry. about it. God's going to take care of him. He'll have to answer to God for all of the things that he's doing. He'll have to answer to God for everything that's taking place right now. And he's like, yeah, I wish God would act a little bit faster. And sometimes that's the way we are too, right? And on this side of eternity, you may never see the difference. Now, in this particular story,

I watched it happen because one day I watched him get marched off the property because they finally found out all the shady stuff he was doing. And when that happened, I looked at him and he goes, man, you were right. I'm like, I don't hear that very often. But I'll take it this time, right? Because God deals with those things. Because listen, when somebody acts that way, God sees. They can manipulate everybody else in the world.

They can manipulate every other person in the world. God sees. And God will deal with it. He will either deal with it on this side of eternity and the other side of eternity, but he will definitely deal with it on the other side of eternity. And the Bible has a lot to say about people that abuse. Others, especially when they're kids. You know what the Bible says about it? It'd be a whole lot

better if that dude just had a millstone wrapped around his neck and he were drowned in the deepest of seas than to have to deal with God. That's pretty intense, right? That's some pretty serious stuff. And so if that's you today, if you're somebody that's causing somebody that kind of grief, you better stop because you're going to have to deal with God someday, right? And God is

not the kind of person I would want to have to deal with if I'm living in that kind of situation. That kind of sin. He says God is just to afflict those who have afflicted you. But not only is God just to deal with the sins of all of those people, and we don't have to. And listen, I'm going to say this real clear. The Bible is very clear about this. Vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the

Lord. There are people that cause major problems in our life. And sometimes in my flesh, I would like to cold cock them. I would like to cold cock them. I would like to cold cock them. I would like to lay them out. That's not my job. My job is not to be the one that does that. My job is to let God do that. Because God can lay them out a whole lot better than me. Vengeance belongs to

the Lord. Ours is to trust that he is able to handle the situations that need handle. Our job is to trust that he sees, that he knows, and that he's acting on our behalf. But now it comes to those of us who are not able to handle the situations that need handle. And I'm going to ask you to trust that he sees, that he knows, and that he's acting on our behalf. But now it comes to

those of us who have dealt with those things. Notice what he says. Not only is he just to afflict those who have caused affliction, but verse 7, and he is just to give relief to you who are afflicted. And to us as well, when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire. And he's just to give relief to us. That word relief is the word

rest. He's just to give us rest. Because you know as well as I do that when you deal with situations like that in your life, when you deal with people that treat you that way, when you deal with situations that have afflicted you in that way, sometimes you get exhausted. Amen? Sometimes that exhaustion is just real, and it wears you down. And we have to understand that there is rest in God. Now,

Paul says something here that I wish I could just white out of the Bible, right? Let me read it to you again. He says, And to give relief to you who are afflicted, and to us as well. Yay! When the Lord Jesus will be revealed. Ooh. That feels like a long time to have to wait, doesn't it? That's a long time to have to wait for rest. That's a long time to have to wait for relief. So are you telling me, Ryan, that

there's going to be no rest and no relief on this side of eternity? I'm just going to have to wait until Jesus comes back and ultimately gives me rest? I mean, to its fullest extent, yes. But I want to tell you something. I want to tell you something. Rest is available for us as believers in Jesus Christ. The first time that you received rest in your life was the day that you

came to know Jesus as your Lord and Savior. You were fighting against him. You were kicking against the goads. You were weighed down with guilt. You were weighed down with shame. You were weighed down with all those things. And then you finally made that decision, I'm just going to run to Jesus. Like we sang in that song, run to the Father. You did, and you gave your heart to the Lord. And for the first time, you felt a little bit of rest

in your life. You felt a little bit of peace in your life. And you thought, everything's amazing, world peace in my own apartment, right? I'm living the Barbie life. And then you realized that that didn't mean that you were immune from affliction. You weren't immune from the difficulties of this world. You understood that the prosperity gospel is not real, right? And that you're going to have

to deal with the difficulties. And pretty soon, all of the difficulty ramps up, and you're like, wait, I'm a believer. I thought this was going to happen. I'm going to have to deal with this this was supposed to be easy. I thought I was supposed to have peace. And that affliction kind of ramps up. And then you start to realize that God's using it in your life, and that He's going

to give you everything that you need to be sustained, and then you kind of rest again. And that pattern goes throughout all of our lives. We have moments of rest. We have moments of peace. We have times where perhaps God gives us a little bit of rest from the affliction, or perhaps we're really resting in who God is. But it doesn't mean that you'll never deal with affliction again.

It doesn't mean you'll never deal with persecution again. A quick survey of the book of Acts will show you that. Matter of fact, if you read in the book of Acts, you'll find that that cycle is exactly what took place in the lives of the believers in the early church. Persecution ramped up. God was faithful. It kind of leveled back off, and they were able to continue to live life. And then it

ramped back up, and that continued to take place. God gives you seasons of rest, but He can also give you rest of soul. But all of that is to point us to something. All of that is to point us to where we actually are intended to be, and that's in the kingdom of God, where God is ruling and reigning, because Jesus has returned to the earth, and He has restored order in the way that it's supposed to be, because that's the rest that we're ultimately looking for. Again, the problem that we

have in the Western culture a lot of times is that we want perfection on this earth. We want everything to be perfect on this earth. The only problem is this place is fallen. This place is in. This place is marred by the evil of Satan ruling and reigning right now. And the only place where we'll ever truly find the rest that we're looking for is in the kingdom, is when Jesus comes

back to take us home to be with Him. That's why your heart constantly longs for a place besides here. That's why your heart constantly longs for a place besides here, because if God could give us all of the rest here, then we would never want to be there. We would never want to be with Him. And so He allows all of the evil to rule and reign, and it keeps our hearts longing for home,

because that peace that you experienced on the day that you came to know Jesus, that's the peace that He wants you to have for the rest of eternity. And He says, for those of you who are afflicted, for the rest of us, there is relief. Pockets of it now, moments of it now, and ultimate relief and rest when Jesus, returns. Amen? So He goes on to say, He goes back to dealing with those who deal out affliction and

carries on with this idea of righteous judgment when He talks about this word retribution. Notice what He says in verse 8. Dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power. Dealing out retribution. And there's two groups of people that He's going to deal out retribution to.

Those who do not know God and those who do not obey the gospel. Those who do not know God, I believe He's referring to as those who have not believed God's general revelation. God's general revelation. Let me explain to you what I mean. Have you ever shared the gospel with somebody and like they just don't want to believe you, and so they start throwing all of the excuses at you

and they all of a sudden get concerned about every remote tribe in Africa? Have you ever been in that situation? They're like, yeah, but what about the people in Africa that have never heard about Jesus and they don't have a Bible and they might not even have a written language and what about them? Everybody gets so concerned about that particular tribe. It's like, well, get saved and go reach

them. You know, go build them a language and give them a Bible. Here's the thing. Everybody has a general revelation of who God is. We're told in the book of Romans that the invisible tributes of God are clearly seen through creation. Not only that, I was reminded of this between the services, not only that, but God has written His law in our hearts. We oftentimes refer to it as

our conscience, but most people have a general understanding of right and wrong. Most people have a general, they don't have the specific understanding, but they have a general idea of what's right and what's wrong. And when you follow the general revelation that you have, because that's all that you have, God is. Just, and if that's the only knowledge of God that you have, and you put your faith in God based upon that knowledge, you can be saved. But some will not believe God no matter how much

general revelation is given to them. That's the first group that deals with divine retribution. The second group are those who do not obey the gospel, which is a lot of people in the Western culture, right? Because they have heard the gospel of Jesus Christ, and they have heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. What does it mean to obey the gospel? What it means to obey the gospel is to put your

faith in it. I told first service, I obey the gospel of the traffic all the time, right? You know what the gospel of traffic is? The gospel of traffic says that if you stand in the middle of the street, you'll get hit by a car. But here's the good news, you can move out of the street. That's the gospel of traffic, right? And I obey that on a daily basis. I'm a runner,

get out and run, and I obey the gospel of traffic. I obey the good news that if you get out of the way of the car, you will not get hit by a car. Well, that's the idea of obeying the gospel. The gospel says judgment's coming unless your faith is in Jesus. Well, I'm going to put my faith in Jesus because that's the good news. But there are some people who say, nope, there's got to be another

way. I don't want to give up my sin. I don't want to give up my pride. I don't want to give up my good works. I don't want to give all those things up. I am not going to obey the gospel. That's fine. You just get divine retribution. You get God's righteous judgment. And if you don't know what that is, go on to the next verse. He says in verse 9, these, meaning those who did not know God and

those who did not obey the gospel, will pay the penalty of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and away from the glory of his power. These will pay the penalty of, did you take note of that describing word there? Eternal destruction. Friends, the reality is that there is one way to life. There is one way to eternal life, and that's through Jesus Christ. And those who will not go through Jesus Christ choose not to

obey the gospel, and their only hope is divine retribution, which means eternal destruction. There are those who will not go through Jesus Christ, and their only hope is divine retribution, who will try to say, well, you know, I don't know if hell is really eternal. They believe in this annihilationism. I just don't believe in an eternal punishment. The only problem is that's

what it says, and that's what Jesus said when he described hell, which, by the way, Jesus spoke of hell more than anybody else in all of the Bible. When Jesus described hell, he described it as a place where the flame is not quenched and where the worm does not die, speaking of eternal. And then there are some people who say, oh, a loving God would never send anyone to hell. You're right.

God doesn't send anyone to hell. It's your choice. As a matter of fact, one wise preacher has said, you have to step over the crucified body of Jesus Christ in order to walk into hell. And that's the truth. And it is an eternal destruction. When you read in Scripture and it describes the eternal destruction of hell, it is a horrific thought. Some have described it as

a constant falling. It's definitely described as a constant burning. But I think that the thing that will really make it hell, and we'll deal with this in just a second, is that gnawing feeling on the inside of someone's heart that says, I always had a chance and I didn't take it. I think they will replay that moment in their mind over and over and over again for all of eternity. But what will really make it hell is this. Not only is it the penalty

of eternal destruction, but notice what it says, from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power. Because you see, it's not the burning that's going to make it hell. It's not the falling that's going to make it hell. It's not even the eternity that makes it hell. What makes it hell, what makes it eternal destruction, is that you are eternally separated from the Lord. You know how I know that? Because there's a story in the Old

Testament, the book of Daniel, about three young men. Their names are Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, unless you've watched VeggieTales, and then it's Rack, Shack, and Benny. Right? And so Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to eat the chocolate, buddy. Wait, wrong story. They refused to bow down to the idol that Nebuchadnezzar had set up. And he told them, anybody that won't bow down to the idol when you hear the music play,

you're going to be thrown into the fiery furnace. And everybody bows down except these three guys, right? And these three guys refused to bow down. And he says, what are you guys doing? Bow down to me or I'm going to throw you in the fiery furnace. They said, hey, listen, here's the thing, King. You can save us from your fiery furnace. But even if he doesn't, we're still not going

to bow down to you. And it infuriated him. And so he heated the furnace up four times hotter. I don't even know how you do that. Four times hotter than it normally was. It was so hot that the guys that threw Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego into the furnace were burned up themselves. And what were Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego doing while they were hanging out in the furnace? Well, they were hanging out with Jesus, right? Like they had

a little worship service. It's right there in the middle of burning destructive fire. Only that wasn't hell for them. Why? Because Jesus was with them. You see, the thing that will make it hell is you will be given exactly what you want. I want to live my life apart from God. I want to be my own God. I want to do what I want to do. That's fine. You can live your life apart

from God and you can be your own God, but you'll have to burn. For eternity without God. And then you realize what actually brought life, what actually brought health, what actually brought hope is the very thing that I rejected. Brothers and sisters, a quick sidebar here. First of all, if you're here this morning and you've never made that decision, I need you to know the reality of what's going on. It's not just

live a better life with Jesus or live a life of sin apart from him. It's not just live a life of sin apart from him. It's live an eternal life with Jesus or live an eternal life in eternal destruction. That's your choice. And if you've never made that choice, I wouldn't play with it. I would make today the day that you give your heart to Jesus. I would make today the

day that you say, Lord, I have sinned and I want to follow you. Come be my savior and start following him with all of your heart. Because that's the choice that's laid out for you. It is a warning. It's a warning to all who would not believe. And you're probably finding yourself saying, Ryan, where did the persecutors go here? You just made this a blanket statement. I'll tell

you where the persecutors went. They're the ones who don't obey the gospel. You know how I know that? Because I've watched it happen. I watched somebody reject the gospel of Jesus Christ. And pretty soon, they have to get harsher in the way that they push away the gospel, right? Like the first time that you reject the gospel, you just say, I don't think I have time for that today. I'll do that when I get older, right?

Only when you get older comes and you reject the gospel again. Only this time, you have to push it back just a little bit harder. And pretty soon, you have to just keep pushing it back harder and harder and harder until eventually you want to destroy the people who are giving you the gospel. And you become a persecutor. It is the fruit of the rejection of the gospel. That's why he brings it down to all of us. But I tell you that there is

a warning here. And the warning is you'd better get your heart right with Jesus. Otherwise, we all know what's going on. It's coming. But I also think that there's an exhortation in here for us as believers in Jesus Christ. Brothers and sisters, we have the good news. It is God's desire that all would be saved. That's why Jesus came. He doesn't want anyone to have to go through

this. He doesn't want anyone to be separated from him for eternity. He saw that humanity was separated from him because of sin, and he immediately had a plan to deal with it. And the plan had to do with the cross, bearing the penalty that rightly belongs to God. It belongs to us. Separation from God, which he experienced while he was on the cross. And brothers and sisters, we have this treasure. We have this message. We have this truth.

And it is incumbent upon us to share the truth. Oh, Ryan, I don't think that they're going to, I don't think that they're going to accept it. It doesn't matter. You still need to present the truth. We're in the middle of the book of Ezekiel right now in our daily reading. And if you paid attention to the beginning of Ezekiel, you'll know that Ezekiel was told something. He was told, you, Ezekiel, are a watchman

on the wall. The watchman has one job, to alert the inhabitants of impending destruction. If you see the enemy army coming, and you warn the people, and they take cover, it's a beautiful thing. If you warn the people, and they refuse to take cover, that's on them. But if you see impending destruction, that's on them. And if you warn the people, and they refuse to take cover,

that's on you. Friends, I don't want to put any legalistic trip on anybody. The work ultimately belongs to the Lord. But you have a treasure in an earthen vessel. That treasure needs to be shared with the world around you. I know that there's delicate ways to do it. I know that there's times that are more right than others. But I do want to encourage you, don't just keep this treasure to

yourself. But I do want to encourage you, don't just keep this treasure to yourself. Because there's a reality that the world is facing right now. And there's a reality of a Savior that loves us so much. And so he deals with those to whom retribution is going to come. But we end this section on verse 10 with a happy note. He says, when he comes to be glorified in his saints

on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, for our testimony to you was believed. For those of us that are believers in Jesus Christ, we're coming back with him. And he will be glorified in us. As a matter of fact, do you know how God is glorified more than anything in the world? When a lost sinner gets saved. When someone goes from being dead to being alive. And the world marvels

at it. And in that day when Jesus comes back, in that day when we have that rest, the entire world will marvel and say, only God could have done that. Only God could have brought that kind of result. And that's what we're looking forward to. And so he encourages them. Hey listen, I know that you're going through affliction, but listen, it's only proving what God already knew to be true. And

that's that you are worthy of the kingdom of God. God will deal with those who are afflicting you. He will give you rest and ultimately be glorified in your life. And so now Paul goes on to pray for them. Notice what it says in verse 11. It says, to this end we also pray for you always that our God will count you worthy of the kingdom of God. And that's what we're looking forward to. And that's what

he says. I love the way that he starts this off. He says, and to this end we also pray for you always. I love that because it's almost just like that little word. They're going through hard times. They're going through difficult times. And Paul just plainly declares to them, hey, I'm praying for you guys. I want you to know that. I'm here to tell you right now, there's nothing quite as encouraging when you're going through a really hard time than to

receive a text from somebody that says, hey, I'm praying for you. Or to get a little note from somebody that says, hey, I'm praying for you. I absolutely think you should be praying for people, but every now and then you might let them know that you're praying for them because it just means a lot. The smallest things like that, speak the loudest. We had a memorial service here yesterday for a wonderful woman of God who

I've known my entire life and she was such an encouragement to all of us. And she had a ministry. Her ministry was to send out cards. And we opened it up for people to share. And almost everybody that shared said the same thing. I received a card from her. And I always received it right on time. Her son actually said, every birthday, the card showed up on my birthday.

100%. He goes, I think she knew the male mafia and knew exactly how to get it to my house right on the money. But everybody said the same thing. When I needed it most, I got a card from her that said she was praying for me or some form of encouragement. And I'm just here to tell you right now, pray for the people that are around you. Pray for the people that you know are going through

hard things. But every now and then, drop them a little note and say, I'm praying for you. Because I'm here to tell you right now, it boosts us more than you can even imagine. My wife and I were talking about this yesterday. I said, sometimes we feel like serving God has to be some huge, grand gesture. And we've got to have this huge plan. It's got to be this big thing. And we forget that the grandest gestures are the smallest

moments. They're the smallest things that we do. Because that's what speaks the most volume to people. It's just that you know who they are, you remember them, and you care about them. And so Paul says, hey, I just want you to know, we're praying for you guys all the time. There's four things he prays for them. Number one, he says, that God would count you worthy of your calling. To this end, we also pray for you that God will

count you worthy of your calling. What does he mean by that? What does it mean that God would count you worthy of your calling? I leaned on the New Living Translation for these two verses, because I thought it was really good. The New Living Translation words it like this, we pray for you that your lives will match up with the worthiness of your calling. I like that. That kind of made sense to me. That your lives would match up with the worthiness of

your calling. I love it because he already says, you have proven, it's God's righteous judgment, that the way that you're handling all of the adversity that you're going through shows that God is righteous in the fact that he has counted you worthy of your calling. Now my prayer for you is that you will continue to live a life worthy of your calling. That your lives will continue to match up with the worthiness of your calling. That you won't stop persevering. That your faith

won't stop, but that you will continue to be who God has called for you to be. He says, pray that you would live a life worthy of your calling. Number two, he prays that God will fulfill your desire for good. Into verse 11 it says, and fulfill every desire for goodness and the work of faith with power. Again, I leaned on the New Living Translation for this, because I

read that and went, huh? What does he mean by that? This is what it says in the New Living Translation. He says, and we pray for you that you will have power to fulfill all the good things that your faith prompts you to do. That you will have the power to do all of the good things that your faith prompts you to do. I gave this challenge to first service, and I'm going to give this

challenge to you guys as well. Some of you, your faith, which is God at work in your life, is calling you to do something. He's calling you to do something, and right now you're a little nervous to do it. You're a little nervous to step out in faith. You're a little nervous to step out and do what God's called for you to do, because you don't think you have what it takes. You don't think you

have the strength that it takes. You don't think you have what you need, and I'm here to tell you right now, I'm praying for you just like Paul prayed for you, that you would have the power to do what your faith is calling you to do. Some of you, your faith is calling you right now to serve in some fashion in this church. Some of you, your faith is calling you to serve in some fashion outside of this church, but God's calling you to do something, and he wants you to do it, and he's going to give you everything that you need. So this is your gentle nudge to say, don't just do it.

Just warm up the chair that you're sitting in right now. That's not what we're ever called to do as believers in Jesus Christ. Don't get me wrong. I love that you're warming up that chair right now. I am overjoyed that you're here this morning, but that's not your one purpose in life. Your one purpose in life is to be used by God, and so what God's calling you to do, do it. He'll give you the

power that you need to do it. Number three, he prays for them that the name of Jesus would be glorified, that the name of Jesus would be glorified. Now, here's the fun thing about glorifying the name of Jesus, because again, in all of the things that we do, as faith is prompting us to do things, and we step out into those things, God is glorified. Only here's the thing about how, about God's name being glorified. We don't always get to choose how

we do that, right? How are the Thessalonian saints glorifying the Lord right now? How are they bringing glory to the name of Jesus? Well, because they are showing perseverance and faith in the midst of persecution and affliction, right? And right now, they're going, is there an option B, right? Is there something else I can choose besides the persecution and affliction? Can I go with win a million for five, right? I mean, maybe I could go

with that one. Maybe I could just become the best athlete anyone's ever seen before. You know, you name it. You name the fun thing. Maybe I could glorify God by having a Bentley, you know? No, so we don't get to choose how we glorify God, but we still want to glorify God, and he's praised that your lives would continue to bring glory to the Lord. Glory to the name of Jesus, no matter what it is, no matter how he does it. And then the fourth thing

he prays for them is that they would have an understanding of something. Notice what it says at the end of verse 12, that they would understand that it is according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. All of these things are accomplished in our lives through the grace of God, through the unmerited favor of God. How do we live lives worthy of the calling? Through the

grace of God. How do we fulfill every desire for good? How do we have the power to do the good that God is calling for us to do? Through the grace of God. How do we glorify the name of Jesus in whatever circumstance we have? Through the grace of God. We need more of God's grace in our lives. We need more of that unmerited favor, that power that only comes through the Holy Spirit in our lives, because that's what he does

for us. Brothers and sisters, the life that we live on this side of eternity is hard. God never said it would be easy, but we can be encouraged because we know that God is good, and God will always give us everything that we need for everything that he calls us to do. Amen? Let's all stand. I do want to encourage you to come join us tonight at the Burford. It should be a great time as the community

to gather together and worship the Lord together, and so please consider coming out and joining us for that tonight, and if you'd bow with me. Father, we come to you now, and we thank you, Lord, that you have given us another Sunday together. Lord, that by your grace, through your mercy, you have seen fit to draw us together, to draw us to you, to hear what your word has to say. And so, Father, continue to move in our hearts and lives. Continue to teach us and

continue to encourage us through your word. And Father, if there's anyone here this morning that doesn't know you, may today be that day where they dedicate their heart to you, where they confess that you are their Savior. So, Father, we just pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed.